Trials of a True Shinobi
by The Keeper of Worlds
Summary: Time can alter the course of any event. Life is molded by the actions of the living. How do a set of changes in Naruto's life early on affect the outcome of his life as a Jinchuuriki? Only TIME will tell. Rated M as a precaution-No reason yet, just being safe.


I do not own "Naruto"-"Naruto" is the copyrighted property of Masashi Kishimoto-I do not publish this work for the intent of self profit, or any form of monetary gain.

**AN: The first big change is a little over half-way through the chapter.-Just so nobody complains there are no differences, keep a look-out:)...**

_**Trials of a True Shinobi**_

_Chapter 1: Same Name, New Beginnings_

_...Time has many twists and turns...by changing one thing in any part of its course one can completely alter the course of history...We shall now gaze upon how things would have turned out for Naruto with but a few "simple" changes to his past...Will they be for better or for worse?...Only TIME will tell_

Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, _WAS_ having a _VERY_ good day. He was having his Shadow Clones finish up any annoying paperwork in his office, he had successfully avoided his fangirls-shiver-all day, and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki, was giving birth to their son at this very moment in a secured and prepared, cave. The reason for this is because Kushina is the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, the Nine-Tailed Fox. Since she is a female Jinchuuriki, birth has a _"few"_ extra complications. Like the fact that if her husband wasn't there to monitor the seal, which became weakened by her body using its energy to help the baby, the Fox could free itself from Kushina, thus killing her and anyone nearby.

"IT HURTS DATTEBANE!" Kushina screamed. While Kushina was decimating the sound barrier, Minato was freaking out at seeing her in such pain. I mean, this was the woman nicknamed "The Bloody Habanero" for crying out loud! With this happening, the "Yellow Flash", Yondaime Hokage of Konoha, was having a total panic attack at the distress his wife was in.

"Is she gonna be alright," Minato asked Biwako, the wife of the Sandaime Hokage. Biwako and her assistant were attending to Kushina as she was giving birth.

"Oh hush you!" Biwako scolded "You're a Hokage for pity's sake! Start acting like one!"

"Bu-ut, I've NEVER seen Kushina in so much pain," pleaded Minato while hovering over his wife's stomach where the seal was on her body.

"Feh," started Biwako, "of course not, but you men don't have the stomach for pain like women do. That's why we are the ones who give birth!"

"Keep pushing Lady Kushina, I can see the head crowning!" exclaimed the assistant. Minato heard this and thought desperately "Come on out Naruto, and Kyuubi, you stay put!" while Kushina was giving her all into one more push.

"AWWWWWWWW!" Kushina cried out louder than ever before. She was giving her all so her baby could be born safely into the world. Suddenly Minato and Kushina heard a sound that made both look at each other with wide-eyed smiles.

"Waaaaah, waaaaah!" cried out the newly born Naruto.

"Quick, the hot water!" ordered Biwako to the assistant who ran to fetch it. The two quickly washed off the newborn and wrapped him in a swaddlen blanket.

Minato and Kushina were in parental rapture and smiling at each other with such it was almost palpable. Soon Biwako was walking over to them with the assistant while cooing to the adorable newborn. As Minato tried to reach for the baby, Biwako suddenly snatched back and said, "No! The _mother_ gets to hold him first."

While Minato was internally drawing circles in the sand, Kushina had the a look of pure rapture on her face. As Biwako handed her baby to her, Kushina finally got to see the baby boy she had carried for ten months and was immediately in love with him. He had an adorable face, a fold of Minato's golden blonde hair, her face, and those absolutely **adorable** whisker marks! To her, he was perfect. She immediately knew he would look like a lady-killer, which meant more target practice on _fangirls_ for her!

(Minato's Fangirls)

Suddenly the convention of Minato's fangirls all had a severe shiver of fear and were rubbing various wounds inflicted on them by Kushina. That women had serious possession issues!

(Back to the family)

As Minato watched his wife holding their newborn he said, "Okay Kushina, let Biwako hold Naruto so I can work on the seal." Kushina nodded in acceptance and handed her son back to Biwako who backed away to let Minato do his work. While working on the seal, Minato and Kushina suddenly heard two startled cries and something hit the floor. When they looked, Biwako and her assistant were laying on the floor, blood pooling around them. Above a strange masked man in a cloak was holding Naruto with a kunai aimed right at him!

"Yondaime Hokage," started the masked man, "step away from the Jinchuuriki if you want to see your son live past the ripe age of one minute." While doing this he lowered the kunai to Naruto to emphasize his point and Naruto started to cry hysterically.

"Wa-it a minute let's talk about this!" said Minato starting to panic. Suddenly the masked man threw Naruto into the air and leapt up to strike him.

"NARUTO," Kushina cried out in distress for her son. Minato gained a cold look and vanished in a flash of yellow light, his signature technique the Hirashin or Flying Thunder God Jutsu. He reappeared by Naruto and grabbed him to only disappear and appear again on the wall on the far side of the room in the blink of an eye.

"You live up to your name, Yellow Flash," said the masked man cooly, "but are you fast enough for this!" He put his hands into a ram seal. Minato heard a distinct sizzling sound and saw the man had put explosive tags on Naruto's blanket!

"NARUTO, MINATO!" screamed Kushina.

Minato quickly teleported himself and Naruto away to a storage house and removed the blanket from around Naruto. He then jumped through a window and barely got clear of the explosion when it went off.

_"That man forced me to use the Hirashin to put distance between me and Kushina," thought Minato as he pulled a small chunk of wood out of his leg that had shrapneled and hit him from the explosion. "Good, Naruto appears to be alright," Minato thought after looking Naruto over for any injures. He then quickly teleported them to their house and set Naruto in a bed and put a blanket over him to keep him warm. With a stern face Minato teleported to his wife's position as quickly as his namesake could take him._

(Deep in the forest by a lake)

Kushina was glaring down at the masked man as her chakra chains appeared to hold her because of the seal breaking, tying her to the rocks around her. "Why are you doing this?" said Kushina with as strong a face as possible. The birth and the seal had drained her to extremes and only the extreme pain from the seal was keeping her conscious.

"Not much," started the masked man with a chuckle, "just to raze Konoha to the ground!" Kushina, if possible, got even paler upon hearing this and she became filled with dread for her home. While she was thinking this all, the masked turned his gaze towards the seal with the one eye visible through the mask. The eye began to spin with three black tomoe and a crimson red tint. Suddenly the masked man appeared inside the seal's mindscape and looked at the Kyuubi. The Kyuubi was bound to a large ball of floating lava by several stakes through his tails, torso, and legs.

**"YOU!"** roared the Kyuubi seeing the masked man before him.** "Damn you and those accursed Sharingan eyes,"** began the infuriated Fox, **"those _eyes_ are nothing but an _abomination_ on this world!"** As the Kyuubi seethed in rage, the masked man used his Sharingan to put the Kyuubi under his control and force it break completely out of the already weakened seal.

In the real world, Kushina had her mouth open in a silent scream, her eyes rolled in the back of her head, and the Kyuubi's chakra cloak over her body. The masked man looked on and said suddenly, "The time is here, COME OUT KYUUBI!" With that, the chakra around Kushina swirled into the image of the Fox and roared. It then formed around the seal, which turned pitch black, and gushed out in a huge wave. The Kyuubi no Kitsune was out in world once more, with the Sharingan tomoe spinning in its crimson eyes. Kushina then fell to the ground as the chakra cloak around her vanished in an instant.

"You Uzumaki really are something," stated the masked man seeing Kushina struggling to get up, "having your Bijuu removed didn't kill you immediately, yet, but still. I believe it would be fitting for me to use the Kyuubi to kill its former Jinchuuriki, don't you?" The Kyuubi then raised a massive claw up and swung down to where Kushina was looking on with wide, but hard, eyes.

Minato suddenly appeared several hundred feet away atop a tall tree while cradling the panting form of Kushina. "Tsh," said the mask man, "so the Yondaime saved the Jinchuuriki, oh well. It is time to get my vengeance upon Konoha once and for all!" With that the man was sucked up into his eye and vanished. "Minato," said the exhausted Kushina, "he's going to attack the village." Minato said nothing and quickly teleported them back to the house, where Naruto was.

Upon arriving at the house Minato placed Kushina onto the bed with Naruto. When Kushina saw Naruto she began to cry heavily while stroking his face as he sleep, blissfully unaware of what was going on. Minato was horribly torn at seeing the distraught form of his wife, the woman he loved and mother of his child, in such a state. It only served to steel his resolve to icy perfection. As Minato was finishing his preparations to do battle, Kushina said, "Be careful Minato." With a final flourish of putting on his white cloak with red flames and the kanji for "Fourth Hokage," or Yondaime, in red as well, he said in total control, "I'll be back." With those words he vanished, once more, in a brilliant flash to do battle with the man who threatened his home and family. The bane of Iwa for the Third Great Shinobi World War, the Yellow Flash, was _seriously pissed off_.

(In Konoha-The Village Hidden in the Leaves)

Villagers where going about their business happily in the streets of Konoha. Some where busy running errand, others drinking and partying, some on the way home, and others just were having a nice night out. Unknown to them, the masked man appeared in an empty alleyway, looked around, lifted his mask to bite his thumb, did several rapid handsigns, slammed the bitten hand down, and shouted, "Summoning Jutsu!" A huge ploom of smoke appeared and the shockwave of the summoning alone did large damage to many nearby buildings. When the smoke cleared all the villagers, ninja and citizen alike, looked on in horror. _The_ _Kyuubi no Kitsune, the dreaded Nine-Tailed Fox, was inside their village, and it looked** very angry! **_

Everyone started panicking in uncontrolled terror. Who can blame them? _A LIVING natural DISASTER was attacking the village!_ Many of the ninja, shinobi and kunoichi, scrambled to attack the beast while others went to inform the Hokage of the situation immediately. While this was going on the Sandaime, Third, Hokage known as Hiruzen Sarutobi stood in his full battle armor gazing upon the destruction that the Kyuubi was causing.

_"What happened?" thought the fabled God of Shinobi and the Professor, "Where there not enough preparations for the birth? Also, where is Minato?"_

After thinking about all of this Sarutobi ordered the ninja with him to go draw the Fox out of the village and he summoned his loyal partner, the Monkey King Emma. "What is it Sarutobi," asked Emma. "The Kyuubi is attacking the village and we need to push it out," replied Sarutobi. Emma looked out over the village's destruction and nodded solemnly. "Understood, TRANSFORM!" he said and transformed into an adamantine staff that had an amazing ability to expand its reach and was virtually uncuttable. "Time to do battle," said Hiruzen as he held Emma and raced off to do battle with a demon.

(On top of the Hokage Mountain-The Yondaime's Head)

Minato had just teleported to the Hirashin symbol he had implanted inside his own statue head and was surveying the battle with a grim look. As he looked on, a growing sense fo dread was slowly creeping into him with each passing second.

_"How could it all have come to this?" Minato asked in his thoughts. As he was thinking this the Kyuubi turned to face the mountain and looked right at Minato. "Ah," Minato thought, "so he's finally noticed me?" Then the Fox began collecting an insane amount of red and blue chakra and condensing it into ha huge black orb just above its mouth. "That's bad!" thought Minato in shock. The Kyuubi then let out its massive Bijuudama, Tailed-Beast Bomb, directly towards Minato. Minato quickly raised his three-pronged Hirashin kunai and activated a large transportation formula in front of him. The massive chakra attack was successfully swallowed up into the formula and redirected miles away in front of Minato in an instant, resulting in a massive explosion._

(Somewhere in Iwa)

A young blonde boy looked around feeling he just missed something really cool. He got the distinct feeling it went off with a "bang" and at that moment became obsessed with his family skill of explosions to a whole new level.-GREAT!

(Back to Konoha)

"That was Minato's Transportation Formula!" shouted one Chouza Akamichi to the other ninja around him. While he said that Minato was about to jump off to attack the Fox directly when he suddenly heard someone appear behind him. "You're mine!" shouted the masked man while activating his own strange teleportation technique and was proceeding to pull Minato inside his eye. Minato reacted on sheer instinct and used his Hirashin to transport back to a clearing where one of his kunai was from the explosion of the storage house. "Oh my," said the masked man nonchalantly, "he _is _fast isn't he?" With that he teleported to where Minato was to do battle with him.

(In the clearing several miles away from the village)

At the clearing, Minato watched as the masked man appeared before him and readied his three-pronged kunai. As they stood facing off, the masked man put on chained gauntlets with spikes on the chains. Soon the pair of easily S-rank shinobi circled each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. _"His ability makes him untouchable when I attack, but then he becomes tangible when he counter-attacks. The only way to win this fight, is to attack at the split-second difference when he counter-attacks," thought Minato with a calculating gaze. He wasn't the Yondaime for nothing!_

As if by some unspoken cry was issued, the two combatants charged directly at each other with unreal speed. When the distance closed, Minato threw his kunai and watched it pass through the man's head as if it was air. In the next second, he had formed a _very_ large Rasengan in his right hand. _"I've got him_!"_ thought the masked man smugly. That thought was suddenly cut off when Minato disappeared in a flash, "What!"_

Minato then reappeared where his kunai was, just behind the masked man, and in mid-air. He then slammed the Rasengan into the masked man and sent him into the ground with extreme force. "Flying Thunder God," began Minato delivering his attack, "Level _Two._"

Minato then quickly jumped away from the masked man as he began to get back up. When the man did get up, his left arm was sagging heavily and then his _hand_ oozed off of his body in a white puddle. Minato then took advantage of the other man's injury and suddenly teleported directly in front of him and slammed his hand on the man's chest!

_"How did he teleport right to me!" thought the masked man incredulously, "Wait, he must've done it when he struck me with that attack, damn." That's when he noticed the seal appearing on his chest. "A Contract Seal! He must be planning to remove the Kyuubi from my control!" he thought in outrage._

Minato then jumped back once more and said, "The Kyuubi is no longer your's to control."

The masked man just looked at him and laughed. "It seems I have underestimated you, Yondaime," began the man, "but know this. I will be back and this village will burn along with the rest of the shinobi world!"

With that, the man vanished one final time and left Minato thinking one thing, _"A man as powerful as that, is dangerous. I have a bad feeling the world really hasn't seen the last of his meddling."_ Without a second glance at the field, Minato teleported back to Konoha in hopes of stopping the Fox, but dreading the price more than anything else.

(Just outside of Konoha at the edge of the village gate's)

Hiruzen Sarutobi was suddenly feeling all of his forty-eight years. The situation with the fox was looking hopelessly grim. _"How do you stop a force of nature," mused Hiruzen with grim curiosity._ With a stoic face that displayed the cold manner developed through years of hard combat, the Sandaime Hokage prepared to face off, perhaps for the last time, against the demonic fox.

Suddenly, a large toad appeared in a huge ploom of smoke just across from the Fox. The toad held a large dagger in one webbed hand, had a scar on his left eye, and a large jacket with the kanji for "Boss" on the back. "That's the Yondaime's summon, Gamabunta," shouted a random ninja. On top of Gamabunta's head rode Minato with his arms folded across his chest and glaring at the sight before him.

**"So,"** began Gamabunta while taking a drag on the pipe he always carried in his mouth, **"our opponent is the Kyuubi, aye?"**

"Yes," replied Minato, "and sadly this is battle is going to force with part. This will be our final battle, Gamabunta" At this, Gamabunta took a deep breath and sighed heavily at knowing he was going to lose a person who he truly considered his friend.

**"Well then,"** Gamabunta started solemnly,** "it's been an honor fighting by your side, Minato. So, what's the plan for taking on the Fox?"**

"I just need you to buy me some time to set up a teleportation to get Kyuubi away from the village so I can safely seal it away," responded Minato in a firm voice.

**"Alright then,"** said Gamabunta in a steely voice, **"LET'S GO!"** With that the great Toad Boss jumped high and attacked the Kyuubi with his dagger. The Fox dodged the slash easily and slashed at Gamabunta with three of its nine tails. Gamabunta barely had time to react. He quickly fired off a water bullet at the Kyuubi and deflected the tails and again jumped high. This time, the Fox couldn't dodge. Gamabunta landed right on top of the demon fox and squashed it beneath him with ease. The Kyuubi was not pleased. It roared its defiance and began charging another Bijuudama, larger than the first.

_"Just in time!" thought Minato as he finished the seals necessary to teleport himself and Kyuubi away from the village._ Suddenly, Kyuubi vanished from underneath Gamabunta and everyone was looking for where it and Minato went. A brilliant flash lit up the night over by a small mountain a few miles away from the village.

"Over there," shouted Sarutobi as he and a few of the remaining ninja rushed off to where Minato had taken the great demon.

(By the small mountain in a large open field)

The Kyuubi was angry after getting up from its recent _trip_. Suddenly Minato appeared, but not alone. He carried Kushina and Naruto in his arms. Suddenly, chakra chains erupt from Kushina's back and ensnared the Kyuubi, and erected a chakra barrier to seal anything from coming inside.

"Kushina," asked a worried Minato, "what are you doing?"

Kushina turns to Minato with a sad smile and said, "I may not have much chakra left, but I can still seal the Kyuubi back in me and take it with me in death."

Minato paled worse than ever before and went into a massive speech about why she shouldn't and how he was going to seal half the Kyuubi with the Reaper Death Seal and the other half in Naruto with the Shiki Fuin. Kushina was **not** happy at the prospect of her husband being sealed in the Shimigami's gut and their son being a Jinchuuriki.

"Minato, doing that will mean not only will Naruto be left alone, but I wouldn't even be able to see you in the afterlife if your soul is sealed away in the Shimigami!" cried a panting Kushina. Oddly, Minato just got a very surprised look on his face and slapped himself in shock of something.

"Kushina-hime, please repeat that last part for me," said Minato with wide-eyes. She did so, but was wondering what in the world that had to do with things.

"You," began Minato with a huge smile, "are a _genius _Kushina! There is a way we both can be with Naruto later _and_ I won't be inside the Shimigami's gut for all eternity! I just have to seal the last of our chakra and our _soul's_ into Naruto right before the Shimigami can seal my soul! This way we not only can see Naruto later, but by sealing our soul's we can be with him once he is old enough to know what he has the Kyuubi in him and we won't fade away because we can leach off of the Kyuubi!"

If Kushina was ever awed at her husband before, this took the cake. The idea was batshit crazy, something she would approve of in her youth, and it could work!

"Well," began a wide-eyed Kushina, "that is _better _only getting to see him for a little while if just our chakra was sealed, but will it work?"

Minato smiled sagely, ya, "It will, that I can promise. You see the beautiful part is, the Shimigami will enact the seal on the Kyuubi, but won't immediately take my soul, so I can seal it away and the Shimigami would've been fairly beaten by a _mortal_. That means, he can't, as part of the seal, do anything to me after I eventually die. The other gods won't allow it, because for a mortal to fairly win against a god is unheard of. By their own laws, they have to reward me! I only know that because of how the seal was developed, they had to fill me in on mortal-to-god history!"

While Kushina was flabbergasted at this turn of events, the Kyuubi was close to breaking the chains. Realizing this, Kushina looked Minato in the eye and nodded her acceptance. He quickly summoned the ritual altar and so, Minato began. He quickly activated the Reaper Death Seal, and the image of the terrifying Shimigami appeared behind him. It quickly thrust its spectral hand through Minato and sealed half of the Kyuubi's chakra inside. Numb with the chakra and the seal, Minato moved to perform the final sealing and put the fox in Naruto. In a rage, the Kyuubi saw what Minato was preparing to do and aimed an attack, at Naruto. Faster than imagined, Minato and Kushina jumped in front of the incoming claw that would've killed their son. It pierced them clean through their chests. Barely alive, both of them, Minato prepared to activate the Shiki Fuin seal.

"Waaaaaah, Waaaaaah," cried the now awake Naruto.

Minato and Kushina looked down at their baby with sad smiles and Kushina said, "I'm sorry we woke you Naruto."

"Ready?" asked Minato. Kushina turned her head and with a determined look that only a mother protecting their child has, smiled and nodded. So Minato began the necessary handsigns to seal the last of their chakra and souls into Naruto along with the fox.

"Naruto," said Minato and Kushina together, "we love you." With that, Minato performed the last handsign and sealed all three away, inside the now sleeping Naruto.

Hiruzen, with the barrier finally down, walked over to the still forms of Minato and Kushina. His heart was breaking at the scene before him. A family torn apart, before it can truly begin. That's when he heard two distinct sounds. A child crying, and a man's rasping breath. He rushed forward without even thinking. When he got there he was shocked. Minato was still barely alive and clutching his infant son and Kushina!

"Hiruzen," rasped Minato, "his name is Naruto. Tell them he is a hero for his burden. Please, keep him safe. Don't fuck up." He said the last part with a smiling face and passed from the world. The Yondaime Hokage, Yellow Flash of Konoha, was dead. Sarutobi openly wept for the first time in years at the loss he faced now.

"Now," he said picking up Naruto, "time to deal with my greatest enemy after _paperwork_, **_politics_**." With that, he left to deal with the idiot, mainly civilian, council on how to handle and raise Naruto.

(Somewhere in the Spirit World)

"Damn," said the Shimigami while snapping his fingers, "he actually got one over my ass!" While being impressed that a mortal had actually outsmarted him, he knew he was never going to live this down from the other Kamis. And his day was going so well, he had one a bet for a thousand boxes of-RAMEN! Even the Shimigami was a ramen freak. How ironic.

(One week after the Kyuubi attack)

Hiruzen Sarutobi was, at the moment, a very pissed off and deadly old man. He had been dealing with the absolute bullshit the Civilian Council was spouting about Naruto and had been using ANBU to keep them shut up until a full agreement was met. His **KI**(killer intent) had spiked so often that he was pretty sure somebody had effectively _evicted their bowels_. He didn't bother verifying _that_ by any means.

_"Uh," thought Sarutobi, "between the damned council calling for his death, Danzo trying to turn him into a personal weapon, and keeping this from getting to the whole village I need to wrap this up fast. If I don't, I just** know** that Kushina will haunt me to death and then kill me in the afterlife." He shudders at that thought._

As if Kami-sama had heard him, Jiraiya appeared in the window with a sad smile on his face. "How ya doing, sensei?" asked Jiraiya while looking at the sleeping form of Naruto in the Hokage's office. Hiruzen had brought him in here to keep an eye on him until the decisions were finalized.

"How do you think I'm doing, Jiraiya," answered Sarutobi in an annoyed voice at his student, "That idiotic council and Danzo are driving me insane! However, I've already decided that I'll give Naruto Kushina's name and reveal his status once it's all said and done. I just hope the village will honor Minato's wish of seeing him as a hero."

"That's understandable," said Jiraiya, "So who do you plan on letting the little guy live with? Me, Kakashi, you, or even Tsunade would gladly raise the boy. Even if Tsunade isn't in the village right now, I can easily get her to help given the circumstances."

Hiruzen sighed and said, "Actually, I was going to put him in the orphanage. Being raised by any of us would draw too much suspicion on the why, especially you or Kakashi. He will need to live there until someone either adopts him or he can live on his own."

Jiraiya gave his sensei the hardest look he had ever seen. "What," said Jiraiya through clenched teeth, "Did you really just say what I think you did, _sensei_? THAT IS THE DUMBEST IDEA I'VE EVER HEARD OF! The boy will already be targeted for his status, there is no need to deprive him of a family! I know you are getting old, but that is bull shit idea, and you know it! If you're worried about me traveling with a baby then don't. I will stay in the village as needed. I AM NARUTO'S GODFATHER AND I **WILL **PROTECT THE BOY AT ALL COSTS!" Jiraiya had to stop himself from making himself too loud, lest he wake Naruto. But he was pissed at what his sensei had suggested!

Sarutobi stared wide-eyed at his student and hung his head. He realized that Jiraiya was right. "Forgive me," began Hiruzen, "you are right, Jiraiya. Alright then, if you are so sure, then the boy will stay with you. He will still take his mother's name to keep his father's enemies away. Heck, I'll even assign ANBU to help you watch the boy when you have to leave or are too busy."

Jiraiya nodded at his sensei with a smile. The two then began to draw plans on how to deal with the council and Danzo. While they planned this out, Naruto slept content in his crib. He was completely unaware of how his life would turn out. Little did he, or anyone else, know was that these few changes would alter the course of history for the Shinobi World. For better or worse, only **TIME** will tell.

**To be continued...**


End file.
